Why Decriminalizing Smoking Heroin Wouldn’t Be as Crazy as It Might Sound

By
Phillip Smith, AlterNet
on March 8, 2013

The Norwegian government said Friday it wants to decriminalize the smoking of heroin as a harm reduction measure, Agence-France Presse reported. Smoking heroin is less dangerous than injecting it, and the move could reduce the number of overdoses, officials said.

“The number of fatal overdoses is too high and I would say it’s shameful for Norway,” said Health Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere. “The way addicts consume their drugs is central to the question of overdoses. My view is that we should allow people to smoke heroin since injecting it is more dangerous,” he said.

The city of Oslo has opened a supervised injection site in a bid to reduce overdoses, but decriminalizing heroin smoking would also help, said Stoere. Users currently can’t smoke at the supervised injection site.